Self-service photography booths typically have a still or video camera mounted in a booth wall opposite the user's seat. In some such systems, the wall with the camera mounted therein also has a video monitor for displaying the camera's image. The user is typically given a certain amount of time to position himself where desired within the camera's field of view before the image is captured and printed. Often, the user sits on a bench, and if he needs to change the position of his image in the camera's field of view, he must shift his position up or down or side to side on the bench. Some such booths may have an adjustable height seat that gives the user some control over the height of his image in the field of view.
In one such system the platform to which the camera is mounted may be tipped on a horizontal axis by use of a motor-driven camera-mount platform to change the vertical field of view of the camera. This system provides adjustment only in the vertical direction and so does not allow the user to place his image exactly where desired anywhere within the camera's field of view. Further, the camera movement is accomplished with a motor and pulley arrangement which is relatively expensive, subject to breakdown and maintenance.
Further, there would of necessity be some time lag between the operator's use of the motor control button and the movement of the camera. Accordingly, it is relatively difficult and time consuming for the user to place his image where desired. Since these booths typically have a relatively short time, for example ten seconds, for the user to place himself where desired in the camera's field of view, this motor driven vertical positioning system will not provide the means by which the user can exactly place his image in the camera's field of view. This is a severe problem in such photography booths in which the user selects a stored image into which his image is placed digitally to provide a fantasized picture of the subject; in such instances, it is imperative that the subject be placed at exactly the right position and at the right angle, with the correct intensity of lighting and shading, to exactly fit in the stored image so that the resulting picture looks as realistic as possible.